1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to rotatably, controllably, and releasably adhering one manufactured object to another where it is desired subsequently to unadhere them, such as, for example, adhering work pieces or subassemblies to a base in a work place or on an assembly line, or adhering dishware or other vessels to the top of a tray, box, counter, or table where it may optionally be desired to rotate one object on the other while adhered or attached.
2. Description of Prior Art
There has long been a recognized need for uncomplicated, effective, inexpensive means to temporarily adhere, affix, or attach one manufactured object to another for the purpose of avoiding separation of the two due either to accidental or undesired upset and of being able optionally to rotate such objects upon each other while they remain joined or adhered, if desired, while also being able subsequently to controllably unadhere or detach them and repeat the process when desired.
Examples would be the desirability of attaching a child's bowl to the tray of a high-chair or to a table, of affixing a pet's feeding bowl to a tray or box, of attaching dish-ware or display vessels to the tops of tables, trays, or counters in institutional situations and being optionally able to rotate them, of adhering dish-ware or other vessels to fixed bases in recreational vehicles and boats or ships, or of attaching subassemblies to supporting bases at work stations or in the manufacturing process with an option to rotate them while attached, if desired.
Inventors have created a number of devices to meet various of these needs. Certain of these have relied on vacuum or suction devices. U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,132 to Pearson et al (1993) discloses a suction device attached to the bottom of an article holder which can thus be removably attached to a surface. U.S. Pat. No. 3,765,638 to Harrison (1973) discloses a suction mounting device comprising a housing having a deformable mounting surface that creates suction when deformed. U.S. Pat. No. 2,623,369 to Haydu (1952) discloses an adherent dish connected to a suction cup that adheres temporarily to a table or other supporting plane. All these devices suffer from the disadvantage of most suction-cup devices, which is that they tend to loose their vacuums fairly quickly. In addition, their intricate designs and methods of assembly may make them difficult to wash and clean, and their deformable parts tend to deteriorate.
Mechanical means for removably attaching articles such as dishware to a surface are also disclosed in a number of patents. These include U.S. Pat. No. 2,850,079 to Prushnok et al (1958); U.S. Pat. No. 2,497,194 to White (1950); U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,740 to Podwalny (1970); and U.S. Pat. No. 2,056,437 to Ullmann (1936). A major disadvantage in all these devices is the difficulty they present in washing food from them after use. The collars, slots, bands, and other fastenings of the Prushnok device may tend to become clogged with food during use, as may the hooks, levers, and springs of the White device and the lever, spring, ratchet teeth and other features of the Ullmann device. The O-ring that frictionally engages the socket of the Podwalny patent is intended to be used with refuse and trash cans instead of dishware. When and if used by children, all would present physical risks of having small fingers and nails caught in their intricate mechanisms. All appear difficult to clean, and all involve, to one degree or another, hand assembly, which adds to the cost of their manufacture.
Releasable coupling means are taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,032 to Silverstein (1964), which uses bonding or holding materials that undergo a change in state to cause uncoupling. The device disclosed is intended primarily for military uses.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,469 to Streit (1966) discloses a strippable laminate assembly comprising an aqueous adhesive superimposed on a layer of hydrophobic material. However, the principles here taught are more adapted to be used with wallpaper, billboards, posters, and the like. They would be unusable with dishware or in applications where it was intended repeatedly to rotatably adhere and unadhere the same two objects.
Holding devices for food and beverage containers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,931 to Johnson (1989) and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,876 to Marshall (1990). Both patents disclose holding devices having recesses or compartments, and the Marshall patent discloses a container and tray respectively having a complementary recess and projection of substantial size to prevent upset. However, neither of these devices is designed to employ a viscous, continuously flowable, non-curing liquid to inhibit a food container from being lifted vertically from a holding tray, as a child might do, for example.
Devices providing for holders that rotate upon a base are disclosed in a number of U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 271,054 to Fowler (1883), for example, discloses a table top that revolves on rollers running in a grooved base piece to which it is connected by a pivot. U.S. Pat. No. 435,723 to Barnes (1890) teaches a turntable with a hub revolving upon a supporting base also having a hub wherein the hubs are connected by a central pivot integrally connected to one of them and spread on its other end to prevent their separation. U.S. Pat. No. 3,004,745 to Wilson (1961) discloses a shelf that rotates on a bearing plate to which it is connected by a central pivot. And U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,569 to Church (1994) discloses a method for moving a person from a lying position by means of a device having a support member that rotates upon a base member to which it is engaged by a spindle.
None of the foregoing patents teach the use of, or disclose structures or method for using, a viscous, continuously flowable, non-curing liquid as a rotatable adhering medium for rotatably attaching one object to another, such as a holder to a base, while simultaneously lubricatively facilitating rotation of one object upon the other.
In fact, none of the foregoing takes advantage of the adhering and cohering properties of viscous, continuously flowable, non-curing liquids to temporarily and rotatably adhere two manufactured objects together wherein the liquid does not undergo a change in state, this latter phenomenon being the common characteristic of most adhesives. Yet, it has long been understood that the tendency of matter to hold itself together and to cling to other matter, whether in a liquid or solid state, is one of matter's most characteristic properties. Thus, cohesion is said to be the intermolecular attractive force acting between two adjacent portions of the same substance, whereas adhesion is regarded as a similar interaction between the closely contiguous surfaces of adjacent bodies.
In the case of viscous, continuously flowable, non-curing, liquids, these qualities give rise to certain well-known phenomena of which surface tension, wetting, and wicking or capillarity are examples. So, too, is viscosity, which is the resistance that a liquid system offers to flow when it is subjected to shear stress.
An effect of these qualities is a certain stickiness to be felt, for example, when one lifts a flat piece of glass or similar plane from a body of water. More significantly, when this same piece of flat glass is lifted vertically from a thin film of water on a flat glass base or similar plane, it will be realized that a noticeable additional tensile force is required to do so. And when a liquid more viscous than water is spread in a thin film between two glass planes or sheets of glass, even greater tensile force is required to separate them vertically. On the other hand, either rotating them upon each other or separating them by shear force (that is, by a force exerted along a direction parallel to their planes and which would thus result in simply sliding the two sheets of glass laterally apart) remains much easier to do. And lastly, it is the combined adhering, cohering, and shearing properties of liquids that make them effective lubricants. These are phenomena that the present invention seeks to exploit and/or control as a means of controllably and rotatably adhering one manufactured object to another, of being able to lubricatively rotate one object upon another while they remain adhered, and of subsequently being able controllably to unadhere the same. This is to say that the viscous, continuously flowable, non-curing liquids of the present invention are to be distinguished from liquids of the type considered to be glues and adhesives, which dry, cure, or undergo a change of state by which shear flow is lost.
Notable examples of the prior art of utilizing capillary attraction to affix one object to another are in the field of corneal contact lens. U.S. Pat. No. 2,653,515 to Stimson (1953) and U.S. Pat. No. 2,809,556 to Hornstein (1957) disclose concave lens that correspond to specified areas of the cornea resulting in capillary attraction. However, neither of these patents disclose structures suitable for temporarily and rotatably adhering two manufactured objects together.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,588 to Wanesky (1972) discloses a method of temporarily holding work pieces (namely small, fragile, integrated circuit chips) on a supporting member using a film of glycerol that is subsequently evaporated by heat, thus releasing the work piece. The device disclosed, however, does not provide means to inhibit separation due to unanticipated or unwanted lateral or shear force applied to the object adhered. It would not, therefore, be suitable for adhering two larger objects where a major objective is to prevent unforeseen or accidental unadhering or upset, or unwanted parallel movement of an object held in relation to a holding surface, as by a child or pet, for example.